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May 2018 NACIQI Meeting Will Highlight the Role of Postsecondary Data to Support Student Success through Accreditation

The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) will host one of its regular public meetings next week on May 22-24 to review and make recognition recommendations for several postsecondary accreditors—a key facet of the committee's role in advising the Secretary of Education on postsecondary accreditation issues. Of particular interest, this NACIQI meeting has a heightened focus on postsecondary data.

In addition to its regular reviews of accreditors, a discussion around for-profit conversions, and an update from the subcommittee on reducing regulatory burden, NACIQI will hear:

The presentation on OM will demonstrate how the new data complement existing federal Graduation Rates and reveal additional college completion trends. The presentation on WSCUC's efforts to track student outcomes will show the value of using data for institutional improvement, transparency and accountability efforts.

The report-out from the subcommittee on data could hold the most interest for PostsecData advocates. Earlier this year, 22 organizations called upon NACIQI to recognize the need—and widespread support—for a secure, privacy-protected, federally held student-level data network (SLDN). NACIQI's move to establish the subcommittee on data at their last meeting followed public comments and a panel during which organizations representing students, institutions, and the workforce community expressed support for the kind of SLDN that would be created by the bipartisan, bicameral College Transparency Act.

NACIQI has increasingly undertaken efforts to test the value of data and metrics in its reviews of accreditation agencies, including a pilot program focused on using student outcomes data to inform their recommendations about accreditors’ applications for recognition renewal. For the pilot program, the U.S. Department of Education created a series of data dashboards for NACIQI that present key data such as graduation rates, debt and earnings for students in each accreditor's institutions. NACIQI adopted the pilot as part of its regular review in February 2017.

We are heartened by NACIQI’s recognition of the importance of postsecondary data in informing decision-making and look forward to the upcoming meeting. Be sure not to miss this opportunity to hear more about how higher quality postsecondary data—and better usage of existing data—can support institutional improvement, quality and integrity.